


i think pain is waiting alone at the corner

by lynnearlington



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Pre-Relationship, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2017-07-25
Packaged: 2018-12-06 14:58:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11603004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lynnearlington/pseuds/lynnearlington
Summary: From the tumblr prompt: Lex is killed in prison. Lena's reaction is a lot more than she thought it would be but she tries to deal on her own so Kara comes to comfort her





	i think pain is waiting alone at the corner

The news breaks on Twitter first, and then later on the national news. Lena doesn’t hear about it until she’s walking out of a marketing meeting and checks her phone.

It doesn’t register right away. The words seem so benign as they flash at her from multiple notifications on the screen.

_LEX LUTHOR FOUND DEAD_

The details are sparse. There’s a picture of Belle Reve Penitentiary and a few blurbs about a guard finding his body. No blood, no wounds. Just dead.

Lena reads what little news she can find while sitting at her desk that afternoon. The news plays on the television against the wall, but no one can seem to pinpoint a cause of death. Lena’s not much concerned with that kind of information. Lex had more than enough enemies. It was only a matter of time.

It isn’t until the news has already been everywhere for several hours that someone actually calls her directly. It’s the warden from Belle Reve and she almost laughs at his tentative. “Miss Luthor? I have some news regarding your brother.”

“I’m afraid Galaxy News has beaten you to it, Warden,” is all she says before promptly hanging up.

\--

No one knows how to treat her or talk to her and she can’t say she really blames them. She imagines it has a lot to do with everyone being uncertain as to how she feels about her brother’s sudden death and frankly, she’s not sure she knows how she feels either.

Part of her can’t help but feel some measure of relief.

The other part….well the other part remembers late night chess games with her big brother and the way, until the end, he had always treated her like his beloved little sister.

She had mourned the loss of that version of Lex years ago, but there’s still something that dies inside her. Hope maybe. Hope that one day her brother might return to her.

\--

The phone rings so constantly with calls from news outlets that she tells her assistant to just stop answering the phone entirely. Anyone that could possibly _need_ to reach her has other means of doing so.

The day is spent in meetings with most of her department heads trying to mitigate any effect Lex’s death has had on stock prices and the company in general. There’s something cathartic about discussing her brother’s death in a practical manner. It certainly makes it easier to turn off any personal feelings she may have been having.

\--

The first person she sees on any kind of personal level is Kara who walks into her office early afternoon one day with a somber expression on her face.

Lena looks up in surprise when her door opens, but she smiles when she sees Kara. “How did you sweet talk Jess into letting you in here?” Lena asks with a teasing quirk of her brow.

Kara laughs. “Jess loves me,” she answers, but when Lena just looks at her silently she adds, “And I brought her donuts from that place she likes on 5th.”

“Ah, bribery,” Lena says, leaning back in her chair. “You’re becoming quite the journalist.”

“That’s not bribery. It’s friendship,” Kara insists and Lena can’t help the face she makes.

“So you’re here as a friend and not a journalist? I have to imagine I’m hot news over at CatCo.”

A flash of hurt crosses Kara’s face. “Lena,” she says softly. “I’m your friend first. _Always_.”

Lena clears her throat gently, fiddles with a pen on her desk. “Well then, what can I do for you?”

Kara’s brows pull together. “I was going to ask you that,” Kara says. “I’ve been trying to call you, but your phone is off.”  

“I’m fine,” Lena says and the words feel so robotic with how often she’s repeated them the last two days.

“You can’t be fine,” Kara replies with a knowing tone as she falls into one of Lena’s office chairs.

“Why not?” Lena asks with a sardonic laugh. “Lex Luthor supervillain extraordinaire is dead. I hear they were singing in the streets of Metropolis.”

“Lena,” Kara says softly and Lena can’t help the way she bristles at the tone. It feels to vulnerable to be talking about this in her office, sitting in a position of power in a company that Lex basically built with his own two hands.

“Don’t,” Lena says, voice equally as soft as she looks away from Kara. Her eyes settle on the TV on the wall where the news still plays silently. Superman is on the screen in the middle of the interview and Lena’s at least grateful she thought to put the television on mute. Kara’s eyes follow Lena’s just as she reaches for the remote and flips the screen off.

“Lena,” Kara tries again, but Lena stops her with a wave of her hand and a small smile.

“I’m fine, Kara. Honestly. I just have a lot of work to do.”

Kara looks entirely skeptical and a lot like she might try to push Lena into talking, but thankfully she just thins her lips and stands. “If you want to talk or anything,” Kara offers looking at Lena with a certain amount of concern.

“Thanks,” she says, looking away pointedly towards her computer.

Silence stretches for a few seconds while Kara just stands there before her friend paces away and the click of her office door shutting punctuates her exit.

\--

The plans for a memorial service fall to her, but she only considers it for a few moments before passing it off. If the company wants to hold some kind of service than so be it, but she’s not going to involve herself in putting on a show over her brother’s dead body.

She thinks of how her mother is probably sitting in a cell somewhere fuming over the idea of not holding a parade or something in Lex’s honor and somehow that gives Lena just a shred of satisfaction over her decision.

\--

Kara texts her no less than thirty times in the next two days. All of them invitations to hang out or have breakfast, lunch, dinner. There’s a considerable amount of food oriented invitations. Lena rejects them all. The idea of having to socialize or sit across from Kara’s understanding face feels like it would only lead to a confrontation with feelings that Lena’s not prepared for.

She expects her friend to take a hint after the fifteenth _Sorry. I can’t._ response, but she should have known better. Kara Danvers isn’t one for taking hints.

Instead, Kara shows up at Lena’s apartment late one night with two boxes of pizza, a bag of chinese food and a bottle of vodka.

“Alex told me to bring the vodka,” Kara comments as she pushes inside Lena’s apartment and sets all the items on the kitchen counter.

“Kara,” Lena warns, following her friend into the apartment.

“Lena,” Kara replies, spinning around to cut a quick glare at her friend. “Your brother died.”

The abruptness of the words startles Lena a bit and it must show on her face because Kara softens immediately and paces forward to take Lena’s hands in her own. “I’m not sure if anyone told you, but it’s okay to be sad about that,” Kara says softly.

The sudden understanding does exactly what Lena was afraid it would do and there’s a hot spike of tears at the back of her eyes.

“So you brought me all the unhealthy food you could manage and booze?”

Kara laughs, swings their hands together lightly. “I actually had more food than this, but Alex said you’d probably appreciate the vodka more than the junk food.”

“Your sister is a smart woman,” Lena says, releasing Kara’s hands to head for a kitchen cabinet and pull out two glasses. If she’s going to cry about something she’s at least going to be a little tipsy when it happens.

“Don’t let her hear that,” Kara jokes. “It’ll go straight to her head.”

Lena pours a shot of vodka into a glass and downs it immediately, laughing a little at Kara’s startled expression. “If you’re going to make me get emotional over this I’d like to be medicated,” Lena says. “The way my mother taught me.”

“That’s a dark thought,” Kara says, swiping at the bottle of vodka in Lena’s hands. “Maybe let’s make drinks that don’t taste like rubbing alcohol.”

Lena quirks a brow. “Did you buy five dollar vodka because you thought it was going to taste good?”

Kara makes an offended noise, but she smiles. “It cost me _fifteen_ dollars thank you very much.”

“There’s juice in the fridge,” Lena deadpans, plucking the bottle back out of Kara’s hands and pouring herself some more.

There’s a disgusted look frozen on Kara’s face as Lena takes another sip of the liquor. “How are you drinking it warm like that?”

It’s actually not the most appealing taste, but Lena feels an odd need to show no amount of weakness. Instead of answering she goes to throw back the drink again, but Kara’s hand darts out and stops the glass. “Okay, just for my sake can we not do that? I feel like I’ll get drunk just by watching you.”

It makes Lena laugh just enough that for a moment that ache beneath her rib cage ebbs away in light of Kara’s teasing smile.

Kara rummages around in her fridge, mixes drinks that actually taste surprisingly good and forces Lena to sit on the couch with a plate of pizza.

“I don’t eat pizza very often,” Lena comments, eying the food on her plate.

“It’s veggie pizza,” Kara says. “It’s healthy.”

\--

For the next hour all they do is sit on Lena’s couch with their drinks and their food and talk about absolutely nothing of consequence. At one point the conversation devolves into a heated argument over their favorite robots in pop culture - Lena advocating strongly for The Terminator and Kara arguing quite vehemently for Rosie from The Jetsons, before Lena has a sudden realization, staring out the window and letting the vodka and pizza work their way through her system.

“R2-D2,” she says, and Kara gasps.

“Oh my God, of course,” Kara says, and the absolute certainty on her face makes Lena smile, the littlest bit.

Eventually, Kara tries to talk about something real.

“I know you said you didn’t want to talk about it-”

“I don’t,” Lena agrees immediately, cutting Kara off mid sentence.

Kara sighs. “I wasn’t going to say that you should,” she says. “I was going to say that we don’t have to talk about it, but you also don’t have to act like you’re fine.”

“I’m not trying to act like I’m fine,” Lena says slowly, looking away. “I _am_ fine.”

Before Kara can reply, Lena adds. “I’m fine because I’ve been avoiding thinking about it.”

Kara’s silent after that, a contemplative look on her face.

“I just know what it’s like to lose someone close to you,” Kara says after a few seconds.

Lena laughs a little. “I’m no stranger to loss.”

“That doesn’t make it hurt any less,” Kara says softly.

The threat of tears come again and Lena swallows against the sudden thickness in her throat. An ache settles there that Kara’s pretty blue eyes are doing nothing to help. “It feels like everyone is pretty happy that he’s dead,” Lena admits, with a wry twist to her lips. “But he was my brother.”

There’s a sad set to Kara’s eyes and an answering well of tears in them that makes Lena’s chest feel warm with affection for her best friend. “I know he was. It’s okay that you loved him.”

Lena doesn’t want to cry, but the exhaustion of restraining herself threatens to overwhelm her.

“We don’t have to talk about it,” Kara says and she reaches out to set her hand over Lena’s where it sits against the couch cushions. “But you can talk to me if you want to. And all I will do is listen.”

The warmth of Kara’s palm bleeds across Lena’s skin and up her arm and she looks at the open, honest way Kara is looking at her. Their connection feels so powerful in that moment that Lena feels it like something tangible pulling them together. “Okay.”

“And if all you want to do is drink vodka, I will sit here and do that too. I’ll even spring for the spendy stuff next time,” Kara jokes and it makes Lena laugh.

“Thanks,” Lena whispers and Kara looks at her for a moment. “For not letting me do this alone.”

Kara smiles and turns Lena’s hand over until their fingers tangle together. “Lena,” Kara replies softly. “You’re never alone.”

For the first time since Lex went mad, since Lena lost the only person she’d ever trusted to always be there, she hears Kara’s words and starts to believe them.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr [@lynnearlington](http://lynnearlington.tumblr.com/)


End file.
